Is there human reason, different from divine reason?  I’ve decided there must be.  Einstein died without ever solving quantum entanglement, what he called “spooky action at a distance.”  Nobody has solved it since.  This is the ability of two coordinated electrons, though separated by a thousand light years of space, to change instantaneously and simultaneously, never mind that the speed of light would take a thousand years to reach from one to the other to communicate the change.

Einstein himself said nothing can go faster than the speed of light.  So I put my ambition to go to my final rest in a rational or reasonable way aside, and defer to him Who Made It All with a single explosion.

God gives us some choice in the friends we make, and this is fortunate, because we can then alter the environment which influences us.  If your aim is the stock market, you can choose friends who’ll be helpful in getting you an advisor or a job on Wall Street.  You can also choose friends who’ll help you grow into a great human being.

Of course there are limitations—you don’t choose your parents, your elementary and high school, your country, your neighborhood.  These are gifts.  Appreciate them.

We accrue much from our teachers and chance meetings too.  Listen to what the still, small voice within you says.  Make the most of it.

There are some things about which it is better we don’t know the truth.  You think that I’d be better off if I were certain there were a God?  If I knew him, I’d  quake in my shoes; I’d be consumed by passions like fear, shyness, uncertainty.  If I knew the truth about some of my friends I’d drop them.  Conversely, if they knew the truth about me they’d avoid me.

Ignorance is bliss, sometimes.  But being ignorant can cost you your life, so go along with the truth you know.  Glory in the truth, but be glad you can handle it.

Buck up! You think it’s all bad, the weather, the economics, the friends, everything. Well, it’s just one of those things you have to learn about — a PhD won’t help. This, my friend, is a social civilization, and we solve many of our problems socially. Just because you pay him doesn’t mean a doctor is not part of your social environment. Just because the owner of Facebook is a millionaire doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. We interact. Evaluate. Socialize.

A teacher usually needs a summer job to make ends meet–a married teacher definitely. One of the jobs I had was teaching swimming as a camp counselor to a class of three-year-old boys.

Nathan was afraid of the water, and he put on his bathing suit reluctantly. I started off by teaching him to float, both face down and face up. Then came the crawl strokes, and learning to turn his head up so he could breathe. It could be made fun by letting him try to catch me as I evaded him on my legs in the hip-deep water. By the end of the summer he and the others were confident and at ease in the learning waters. Then came the wondrous day when he tried the deep water.

You sometimes wonder what kind of memory you form on a child that young. When he swims later on in life, will he remember “Uncle Fred” who gave him his start?